Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2005-08-03 17:54
David,
If you go back and look at my previous message, you will see that I did not dispute your first statement, "The Doctoral students are almost never the most talented ones."
I took that to mean either many (most) highly talented students do not choose to enter doctoral programs or, at most universities, usually there are undergraduate and masters students who can play better than the doctoral students. I agree with the first interpretation. I think that's true in any field. The number of people entering doctoral programs is a very small percentage of all college students. I'm not so sure about the second interpretatiion. That may or may not be true and, if it is what you meant, I think you have been cavalier. The statement should be empirically verifiable one way or the other but all I've seen from you is an unsubstantiated opinion (and, while I consider you an expert on clarinet performance, I'm not sure your expertise extends to doctoral programs in performance). So I need to see some evidence but you have not provided any and I don't have the time and resources (or interest) to find out so, for the sake of argument, I originally conceded the point.
What I took issue with was your second statement: "They (doctoral students) are highly educated average talents." While it may not be what you meant, your statement is equivalent to "[All - you didn't qualify with "many" or "most" or "professional"] doctoral students are average talents." In addition to being bad logic, that statement is refutable. I only have to provide one counterexample and, off the top of my head, I came up with several.
If, as you say (and I agree) most of the highly talented students don't enter doctoral programs, some highly talented students still do. Note, too, that your original statement said nothing about when people enter doctoral programs. In my experience, most people who enter doctoral programs do so for one or more of the following reasons: (1) they aspire to an academic career (usually at the college/university level) and see the doctorate as a necessary credential, (2) they want to become experts (or, at least, more expert) in a specific field, (3) they enjoy the lifestyle of a student. Mediocrity, on the other hand, is not a usual reason.
I have taken your use of "talent" to mean "achieved ability" (accomplishment) rather than inherent (or natural) ability. I have always felt (again based on my experience) that "achieved ability" is a function of inherent ability (which, BTW, is how I would normally define "talent") and effort -- probably multiplicative. It follows, if I'm right, that, to some extent, the two inputs are interchangeable. In other words, to some extent, one can overcome a lack of natural ability with exceptional effort. Conversely, one can "overcome" exceptional natural ability with a lack of effort. Natural ability does, however set an upper limit on achieved ability. The truly exceptional performers are those who have exceptional talent and make an exceptional effort to develop it.
Now, in my experience, audition standards are quite high for most (and all the really good) musical performance doctoral programs. Whether a function of natural ability or effort or both, students applying to performance doctoral programs, which is presumably what we're talking about here, must meet a high standard of achieved ability to be admitted. They can't simply enroll because they are average musicians. (And, let us not forget that they have already completed a performance masters in most cases.) So I dispute that they are merely "average" in any normal sense of the word.
Even if most students who are highly talented do not enter a doctoral program, their number is dwarfed by the students who are average and below average talents who stop with a bachelor's degree or even a masters.
So I disagree with your statement that "Doctoral students are highly educated average talents." For the reasons I've given above, I don't think it holds water (actually, the term that first came to mind was "horse hockey") and, if you want to convince me (which, perhaps you don't), you'll have to provide much better evidence.
Best regards,
jnk
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